Last week the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission moved closer to putting together formal rules to deal with stray electrical voltage at dairy farms across the state.  Last year the South Dakota legislature established a remediation program for solving disagreements between electricity providers and dairy producers.  They put the commission in charge of writing the program rules by July 1.  The Commission recently met to talk with dairy producers, utilities and rural electric coops about draft versions of the rules and how to reach consensus when sides disagree.

South Dakota Dairy Producers Association Executive Director Roger Scheibe says they’re pleased with the progress.

Scheibe says it can be difficult to find the source of stray voltage which makes it tough to solve the problem.

The next step is for the PUC to formally propose rules and those will include a 48-hour testing cycle for stray voltage at farms verses.  Scheibe says that’s preferred because there are variations in weather and power load that can affect the study results.